My Angel
by Genghiz Khan
Summary: Love sets the stage for betrayal, and betrayal sets the stage for equality. Then he unveils his coup d' grace. Oneshot.


**A/N :** For all those who wish for me to update my other fic, it won't be happening for a while. There are certain problems which I'm struggling to compensate for in it.

This fic was inspired by Bleach. A oneshot dealing with a possible reason for Harry going to Lord Voldemort's side. Its not betaed, so please bear with a few grammatical errors here and there.

**Disclaimer : **I do not own Harry Potter. That's JK Rowling and Warner Brothers.

* * *

**My Angel**

Auror Tonks clutched her side, face contorted in agony as she tried to stop the flow of blood from the wound. Magic was all but beyond her grasp now as her magical reserves had fallen below the standard minimum. A low stream of curses kept coming from her mouth as she tried to use meditation techniques to block the pain. No luck. It wasn't working. She was, effectively, out of the battle.

Disappointment welled inside her as she looked around at the battleground. London. The entire city had been sealed off temporally and spatially from the rest of the world by the aurors when they had decided to make their last stand against Lord Voldemort here. Every man and woman with even an ounce of fighting ability had volunteered to help stop the Death Eaters.

And they weren't any close to succeeding now as they were before Neville Longbottom had stopped him. The muggles in the city had long been killed by the Death Eaters and the city looked as if a hurricane had swept through it. Half destroyed buildings, partially bent skyscrapers, rubble in the streets, upended cars. In addition to that, the eastern part of the city was deserted; most of the fighting was happening in western London.

East London had just two people, apart from the hidden auror, who were strolling on the streets, seemingly oblivious to the destruction and the fighting going on. The two people Tonks hated more than anyone else in the world, the two people central to the conflict that had destroyed the nation. Lord Voldemort and his trusty lieutenant, Harry Potter.

* * *

The hall was decorated very nicely in colours of red and gold, the traditional Potter colours. House elves meandered among the people, trays balanced upon their heads as they served snacks and drinks. People wandered around, meeting their friends, exchanging pleasantries and telling stories. It was a happy day, the new year's. The Potters' new year ball was supposed to be the society event of the year, even bigger than the annual ball of the ministry.

That didn't stop an 11 year old Tonks from being bored. She looked around the vast hall, trying to find someone she knew. She knew Charlie was supposed to be here.

Tonks sighed, picking up a butterbeer from a passing elf. Her fate was to be bored, she knew it. She'd told her mother that she wasn't interested, but did her mother listen? No. And now it was Tonks who was suffering. She made a face. And when they got home, her mom would apologise and all would be forgotten. Tonks scowled. It wasn't fair that moms got away with so much.

She began walking slowly, trying to recognise the who's who of the wizarding world from the photographs she'd seen in the Prophet. There was Dirk Cresswell, there was Albus Dumbledore, there was Alastor Moody, there was Bartimaeus Crouch, there was–

She collided into someone. Someone small. She stumbled back a few steps but the other guy went crashing to the floor. The people around her didn't notice, they were too busy talking to ponder upon the fate of the victim of an 11 year old girl.

"Oops!" exclaimed Tonks. "I'm sorry! I didn't see you! Are you hurt? Are you all right?"

"Yes Miss," came a very quiet, very polite voice from the floor. Tonks looked at her 'victim'.

He was a boy, no more than five years old. He had black hair and cute green eyes. His skin was fair and without blemish. He looked up at Tonks, and she couldn't help but smile.

"We can't have you on that floor, can we?" said Tonks, offering him her hand. He took it and got up, looking at her shyly. Tonks found it cute.

"Who are you?" asked Tonks.

"I'm Harry Potter, pleasure to make your acquaintance," replied the boy, stumbling over his words.

"I'm Tonks," said Tonks. "So its your party, eh?"

"Yeah," said Harry, "but I'm bored. I don't know anyone here. Ron said he would come, but mum says he can't, so..." he trailed off.

"Same here," replied Tonks, "I was waiting for Charlie, but even he hasn't come. You know who Charlie is, right?" Harry shook his head. Tonks huffed. "You should know him, he's the best seeker in Hogwarts!"

Harry's eyes went round. "Really?" he breathed. "How old is he, which house is he in, which team does he support? If it isn't the Arrows then he's not the bestest seeker, I am." He crossed his arms across his chest with a haughty expression.

Tonks felt a glimmer of annoyance. "Oh yes he is!" she countered. "He supports Puddlemere! Not the Arrows! Puddlemere defeated the Arrows the last time they played against each other in the league semifinals!"

The argument continued long into the night, and when Mrs. Tonks came to collect her daughter from the "Potter boy's clutches", as the two mothers would later joke, the two of them had become fast friends.

* * *

Tonks looked at the two figures from behind the wall she was hiding. They were walking slowly. The Dark Lord savouring the damage done and Harry Potter behind him, a content smile on his face. His green eyes were sweeping across the ruined city, taking in everything, no doubt committing it to memory, thought Tonks bitterly. For them both to savour when ruling the world became too stressful. Or maybe when they wanted a laugh. The resistance offered by the aurors had been pitiful compared to the organised offence of the Death Eaters. They had come in waves and had broken off into pairs, one man shielding and the other one fighting. The tactic had been a new one. And no one had any doubt as to where it had come from.

Harry Potter. The root of all evil in this perverse play. He had joined the Dark Lord and had revolutionised the playing field. His brilliance outshone the Dark Lord's and was more than a match for Dumbledore's any day. Dumbledore himself was lying a few streets away, his lifeblood draining slowly from his body. It was a testament to the Dark Lord's contempt for the Hogwarts headmaster that he left him to die slowly. The Dark Lord granted the mercy of a swift death to respected opponents.

She watched them walk around for a bit more, resentment building up in her heart. The person out there had been her best friend once upon a time. She had laid her heart out to him and he was the one who would help her through the most difficult times in her young life.

* * *

"Mrs. Potter?" Tonks' head spoke through the fireplace. Lily looked up, her face relaxing into a smile as she saw who was calling.

"Yes, dear? I presume you want to meet Harry, no?" Lily asked.

At Tonks' nod, she got up from the stool. "Come on through, Tonks. I'll tell Harry you're here."

Tonks stumbled out of the fireplace, cursing at her clumsiness. She patted her robes to remove soot and ash from them before straightening and walking up the main stairwell to Harry's room. She had come here so many times that the house elves had begun treating her as one of the family. The same treatment was given to Uncle Sirius.

She arrived at his door. Steeling herself, she knocked. As she knocked, her appearance began changing to her natural one. Her hair colour changed from purple to blonde. Her features became sharper and her skin became paler. Her eyes turned electric blue. It was an avatar she was comfortable wearing only in front of a few people. For her, it was the ultimate expression of trust.

"Come in!"

She opened the door to find a grinning boy sitting on his bed.

"Wotcher Harry!" greeted Tonks.

Harry however, didn't bother with verbal greetings. He stood up on his bed, navigated the books and rushed towards her to envelop her in a hug.

Tonks gave a laugh as she hugged the ten year old back. It was great to be with him. They had known each other for five years and their friendship had only grown in that time.

She held him at arms-length, examining him critically. "Hmm..." she began. "Dark circles under your eyes, a blot of ink on your chin, excessively pale skin. God, Harry, you need to get out a bit more."

Harry chuckled as he wriggled out from her grip and skipped back to bed, books forgotten. "Aren't your Ravenclaw friends the same?"

Tonks pretended to think about it. "Umm, not really. What gave you that idea?"

He chucked a pillow at her, which she dodged with a laugh. She tossed it back to him, knowing how obsessively neat he was. He caught it and waved her to a chair. She moved the pile of books on it to the bed, glancing at the titles.

"Defensive Transfiguration by Anthony Mort, Harry?" asked Tonks, her eyebrows raised. She moved her eyes to him. "Paranoid much?"

"Well..." he began, wringing his hands. "I just like it, Tonks."

She grinned at him, and he relaxed, his face losing the tension it held just seconds back. "That's fine, sport. I ain't got no problem with it. It's beyond OWL level, Harry, just remember that."

"Oh," said Harry, "I didn't know."

Tonks mock-glared at him. "Why do I get the feeling that you're lying to me?"

He smiled at her. "You know me too well, my dear friend." He raised his hands in surrender. "I just wanted to get a good look at the rationale behind Gamp's laws. This book is very good for that."

Tonks raised her eyebrows. "Gamp's laws? Since when did you reach them? Weren't you on the theory behind plastic substance transfiguration?"

Harry grimaced. "There's nothing to it. Its just–"

Tonks raised her hands. "Don't tell me, I'm the one who's given an exam on it. You don't really have to explain it to me."

"How went your exams?" asked Harry.

"They went well." responded Tonks. "I guess I'll get an O in Transfiguration, and at least an E in everything else."

"That's good Tonks," he replied. "That's the way you want to go if you want to become an auror. That is what you've decided, no?"

"Yeah," replied Tonks. "I'll be an auror. That is the best way I can help the wizarding world right now."

"They any closer to finding out how he came back?"

"No," sighed Tonks. "There's no clue about it." She shook her head, her golden hair flying about. She swept it away from her face. "Its the greatest mystery since–"

"I know, Tonks," replied Harry gently. "I read the papers too, you now. I just haven't read them for the past week."

"No wonder you have such a good vocab, then." said Tonks.

The corners of his mouth twitched up. "If that was the case, then even you'd have a great vocabulary."

Tonks searched for a pillow to throw at him. Finding none, she just stuck her tongue out.

"Meh," said Harry, looking faintly disgusted. "Stick your tongue into your boyfriend's mouth, not out at me."

The words hit Tonks harder than she wanted. Her boyfriend. A bitter taste seemed to fill her mouth as she tried to maintain her expression in front of Harry. But Harry, young as he might be, was not dumb. His expression changed from playful to concerned in the blink of an eye as he got off the bed to run to her side. "Tonks?"

She looked away from him, trying to hide her tears. Just before she'd come home for Christmas, she'd broken up with her boyfriend. Kirk. The idiot. He'd wanted her to utilise her 'talents' for him. And when she'd refused, he'd looked at her as if she was dirt and told her to grow up. Then he'd left.

"Tonks?" Harry's voice brought her to the present. "Tonks, look at me, what– Don't cry, Tonks, don't cry. Kirk was his name, no? He asked to to shift for him, he asked you to do that, right? And you thought that you loved him? Oh, Tonks, don't cry."

He hugged her. And Tonks couldn't take it any more. The dam broke and her tears began falling. She gripped Harry tightly, not knowing what else to do. She hated being weak, she hated crying, but not in front of Harry. And so she cried her heart out in Harry's arms, feeling lost, but not lonely as Harry cradled her broken heart in his able, 10-year-old arms, murmuring to her and just holding her. She needed that. And slowly her sobs dwindled and turned to hiccups as she clung to Harry like a lifeline.

"Shh, Tonks," he murmured, "He's a git for refusing the love of an angel. You are an angel, Tonks. Remember that. You are an angel to me. You are my angel."

* * *

She could barely believe that the same boy who had helped her through every break-up, through every heart-break, who'd been there for her every triumph was in front of her, sucking up to Lord Voldemort. He'd been like a rock in her life. A person who'd help her no matter the cost to himself, a person who'd care for her no matter how the tides of the world were turning.

But no more. It was some time during his fifth year that he'd disappeared from Hogwarts along with Malfoy and Nott. There had been fears that he had been kidnapped, but then he'd been seen in a raid in Brighton. No one had believed Daedalus Diggle when he told them about it. But the second time it had been Mad-eye who'd given this report. And then he'd been spotted a third time, and then a fourth, and then a fifth. Lily and James had been devastated. They had never thought that their son could go Dark. The news had broken Tonks heart. He had betrayed the very ideals she'd committed her life to defend. He'd betrayed his parents and Dumbledore. He'd betrayed centuries of Potter tradition to become something vile, something monstrous.

His rapid rise in the Death Eater hierarchy had been unprecedented. He'd replaced Lucius as Lord Voldemort's trusted confidante and Bellatrix as his favourite Death Eater. It would have been good in normal circumstances, but these were not normal circumstances. He was a magical prodigy and a scholar in the art of war. This was the first time he'd been able to test his strategies. And the result?

A complete rout of the Order. Death Eaters who, till then, had just come in charging and screaming had become disciplined and competent. They'd begun using techniques he'd invented himself to get the maximum results. The Order had been able to take Bellatrix and Rudolphus out of the equation. But that, somehow, had accelerated the disintegration of the order. It was later that they found out that these two were effective counterweights to Harry in the Dark Lord's war council. They had dug themselves into a hole by allowing Harry more free reign in planning missions.

And it had all started the day he had been sorted into Slytherin.

* * *

Tonks sat the 11-year old down. He looked up at her, his face confident and devoid of anything that would allow her to know what was written on it. She almost cursed in frustration as she looked upon his stony visage.

"Harry," began Tonks, trying to think what to say. "Harry..."

"Yes, Tonks?" replied Harry, his voice amused.

She almost lashed out at him. "Stop being so..."

"So 'what'? Tonks," came his voice.

Tonks sighed. "Harry, I want to be blunt with you. Its not safe, where you are. You are surrounded by children of Death Eaters, Death Eaters in training, Death Eaters out of training. Please be careful."

He looked at her for what seemed like an eternity. And then his eyes softened. "I understand your concern, Tonks, but trust me, I can easily stay out of trouble. You know me."

Tonks nodded, her worry clear on her face. "I know you, and hence I tell you, Harry, please be careful."

He again stared at her face, and Tonks wondered what he was looking for. "I will, Tonks. I will."

She surprised him by leaning over and hugging him. After a moment, he put his arms around her and hugged her back.

"Don't worry about me, Tonks. You concentrate on your seventh year, I'll handle myself," he said, smiling.

She nodded as he stood up and walked out of the classroom, but a knot remained within her stomach, making her wonder if he really meant it.

* * *

She looked out at him. They had stopped walking. He was talking to the Dark Lord right now. There were no gestures, no way for her to tell anything which had happened out there. They were talking about something she couldn't care about. There was no doubt in her mind that the Death Eaters were winning across town. There was no doubt that the Dark Lord had accomplished his purpose of defeating the only one he ever feared. What was to happen, then? Did it really matter?

Tonks closed her eyes. They had lost. The Dark Lord had won. There were no tears within her eyes. She had none to let out. She was exhausted. The Dark Lord would win, and the world would burn. The future was set, and all because of one choice, Harry Potter's.

Suddenly, she heard a sound. The sound of a boot on stone. She opened her eyes.

Emerald eyes stared back at her expressionlessly. She looked at him dully, her form her birth-form. She had no energy left to transform, else she'd not have given him the pleasure of seeing her in her original form as he killed her. A hand still clutched her side wile the other fumbled loosely for her wand. He sill stood in front of her in all his sadistic glory.\

Harry Potter. Death Eater. The greatest man in the armed forces of the Dark Lord. The dark general of his revolutionary armies. The man who single-handedly orchestrated a campaign which put Dumbledore, the aurors and the ministry out of business. The reason behind the slaughtering of so many muggles throughout Great Britain. And she knew that he was proud of it.

No words were exchanged as they looked at each other. Once they were best friends, now they were sworn enemies. Tonks assessed the threat in front of her. He radiated power. If she had mage sight, she had no doubt that he would have an aura as bright as the midday sun. His wand was clutched loosely in his leather-clad hand. His black clothes were actually basilisk-skin, a material resistant to low-powered hexes and jinxes. She had no chance of making it out alive.

"Tonks..." he whispered.

"Shut up," said Tonks sharply, her voice venomous. "You have no right to utter my name!"

His face, which had begun to open lost all emotion as it closed up again. "As you wish." He bowed to her. He levelled his wand, and a red spell came out.

She knew no more.

* * *

She was standing in a street in front of a dark-haired man. She involuntarily took a step back in fear. Lord Voldemort. But how? Was she dead? Did heaven want to show her what happened after she died to Britain? She closed her eyes, blocking the scene out. She didn't want to know.

A hand grasped her shoulder. She screamed as she opened her eyes in fear. Surely he would have heard that!

He hadn't. He was still looking away, almost as if he didn't know she was there. She whirled around.

The hand belonged to a smiling woman. A woman whose timeless face radiated peace, serenity and sadness. The woman held a finger to her lips and gestured for Tonks to look around at the Dark Lord. Tonks looked at her suspiciously, but did not object as the other woman moved to stand at Tonks' side.

Harry was returning to Lord Voldemort's side, his face expressionless.

"Is the deed done?" asked Voldemort, his voice interested.

"Yes, my Lord," replied Harry. Tonks wanted to gag. The Harry she knew would never be submissive.

"Interesting," said Voldemort idly. "I thought that she was someone... special, to you."

Harry snorted elegantly. "Special? No, no. You misunderstand me. I am a snake, my Lord. Just as you are. We have no hearts. Our blood is cold, and when the time comes, we turn upon those whose hands feed us."

Tonks fought to control the bile rising up inside her throat. When had Harry become this way? When had Harry changed from what he had always been? When had Harry embraced the principles of Slytherin so completely? When had he changed? Not in his second year, when he'd congratulated her on her acceptance as an auror. Not in his third year, when he'd cursed her boyfriend who'd been stalking her. Not in his fourth year, when Neville Longbottom had been kidnapped by the Dark Lord and tortured. But then why had he disappeared in his fifth year?

Lord Voldemort smiled a cruel smile. "Indeed, you put it well. Almost better than what I could myself. I must acknowledge, I never thought I would find an equal anywhere in this world, but you come as close to it as anyone else possibly can."

He turned around. Tonks felt the floor drop from beneath her. He'd spotted them. But no, his smile just got wider. "Dumbledore..." he hissed. His voice was very low, but Tonks could hear it very clearly. "You are-"

A shining, pointed pole suddenly pierced his body. Voldemort gasped as his hands slowly grabbed the thing. It was shaped like a... horn? No, a fang? Tonks couldn't believe it either. A basilisk fang?

He turned around. Tonks followed his gaze and gasped.

Harry Potter was staring at Lord Voldemort, his wand pointed at him and an expression of deep hatred twisting his face. "Its been too long, Lord Voldemort, that I've allowed you to rampage around unchecked."

Voldemort attempted to talk through the pain. "Fool! I have ways to survive death beyond your wildest imagination!"

Harry laughed. It held no amusement, just cynicism. "Your horcruxes, you mean? I destroyed them. Every one of them. Why do you think I had to come into your good graces anyway? The company you offered?

"You told me, Tom."

"Don't call me Tom!" screeched Voldemort, his hands bloody, still trying to dislodge the basilisk fang from his torso.

"You told me everything," continued Harry, circling him. "Gringotts, the Riddle House, Nagini, the diary, the locket, the tiara. From there, it was a simple job figuring out what they were. 'Objects very special to you", no Riddle? What is left, right now, is you. The last horcrux."

"You will pay, Potter!" spat Voldemort. "My Death Eaters will kill you!"

"You forget," said Harry smoothly, "that I was the one who made the battle plan, Tom."

Tonks' eyes widened with realisation. He had everything covered. He had made the battle plan of the Death Eaters, he was the one who had made the Dark Lord mortal and he was the one striking the killing blow. He was not the Dark Lord's equal, he was his superior. He was the man who surpassed the Dark Lord.

Her face broke out into a smile. They had won! They had destroyed Voldemort! Harry had done it! He had managed to do the impossible, and he'd done that by fooling the world! That smile turned into a laugh as she turned to the woman next to her.

And it abruptly died. The woman was looking at Harry with a look of horror and sadness on her face. Tonks whirled around.

Harry was on his knees, vomiting. Tonks looked at Voldemort, but he was on the ground himself, feebly trying to get the fang out of his body. Her eyes went back to Harry.

And she retched herself. He was vomiting out his entrails. Lord Voldemort had managed to hit him with the curse just before he went down.

"Harry!" she screamed.

And suddenly there was a disorienting feeling as she plunged down what seemed to be a pensive.

* * *

Harry was staring out from behind a bush at a man and a girl. The girl was unconscious. The man put her in the middle of a circle and began chanting. He chanted for five minutes. Harry was afraid to do anything, lest he interrupt the process. In fact, he was terrified out of his wits. Tonks didn't know how she knew, but she did know.

He looked about six years old.

"Six and a half," whispered a voice next to her, and the woman from the battlefield materialised.

Tonks jumped. "What the–"

"Shh." said the woman, and for the second time that hour, Tonks followed the instructions of the woman and stayed quiet.

A black mist hung in the air around the duo. Tonks shivered as she watched, the mist seemed evil. And then with a roared command, the mist bellowed down towards the girl. Harry and Tonks flinched, as the former broke out into a sweat.

The man bent down and picked up a gold cup. He looked at it, satisfied, as he straightened and disapparated.

Harry peeked out from behind the bush. He looked left and right, his hands trembling. And then he ran towards the blackened circle crying, "Tonks! Tonks!"

With a sickening lurch to her heart, Tonks realised that he believed that the girl was her. Her heart began beating faster she ran after him, trying to see what he was seeing. She came to a halt beside him in the circle and looked at the girl.

She almost threw up. It was her. Her own twelve year-old face stared back at her, at peace with its surroundings. And Harry was bent down next to her, his six-year old frame shaking with sobs.

"Tonks, wake up, Tonks. Wake up! Wake up, Tonks! Please wake up!" His voice drove her to tears. She tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but found that it passed through.

He kept on crying. "Don't go Tonks, don't go! Please!"

"Child," came a voice.

Both Harry and Tonks looked up to see a woman. Tonks' eyes widened. The same woman from the battlefield? She turned her head to look at he woman by her side, who was smiling a sad smile, and then the woman who had called out to Harry. "You were there?" she whispered, shocked.

The woman nodded.

She turned back to the scene playing out in front of her.

"Child, don't cry," said the woman to Harry.

"She won't wake, ma'am," replied Harry, polite despite his tears. Had the situation not been such, Tonks would have laughed. Even in a crisis, Harry would never forget his manners.

"She will not wake, Harry," she replied gently.

At this, all semblance of propriety and politeness broke as Harry launched himself at her, sobbing. "Why? Why won't she wake?" The pain in his voice was heart-wrenching. Tonks looked away from the scene, unable to control herself. How did she not remember this? Why had no one told her?

The good woman replied. "The man in front of you was a bad man, Harry. He did something very bad to her. He took away her life-force."

Harry kept on sobbing. Tonks closed her eyes, hoping it would block out the scene. It didn't help in the slightest. What she couldn't see, she would imagine. Harry, crying on the shoulder of the woman who held him to her, trying to comfort him. Her 12-year old counterpart lying in the blackened circle, staring lifelessly at the sky. It was too much. How did he bear it at the age of six?

"There is a way, Harry," said the woman.

"Really?" came Harry's voice.

Tonks opened her eyes to see Harry lean back from the woman's embrace to look into her eyes. She nodded, appearing grim.

"Tell me!" pressed Harry, clinging on to her words as if it was his one lifeline. "Tell me!"

"It will be dangerous." warned the woman.

"I don't care!"

"Very well. You can give her part of your own life-force. Just enough for her to stay alive."

"Tell me how!"

His voice faded as Tonks was pulled out of the memory and thrown headlong into another one.

* * *

"Potter, Harry!" came McGonagall's stern voice.

Tonks blinked at the great hall. This was her last year, she remembered it well. She spotted herself at the Gryffindor table sitting next to Adrian Smith.

And suddenly she could hear what was going on between the hat and Harry.

_My, my. Where do I put you, Mr. Potter? A great thirst for knowledge, a great scope for leadership, a very brave soul and capable of a great deal of hard work. I see no _bad house _for you._

_Put me where you think I will achieve my goal. _Replied Harry.

_And what is your goal? Is it– My, my, Mr. Potter, to have met our Lady at the age of six, to have willingly given your life force to another to save her from certain death... _The hat's voice trailed away as Harry's expression hardened.

After what seemed like an eternity, the hat spoke, almost reverentially, _You have my undying respect, Mr. Potter, for what you wish to do. The best house for you would be, SLYTHERIN!_

The last part was shouted out to the hall. Tonks took one look at her 17-year old counterpart's shocked face before the memory faded.

* * *

She was in a place she had never seen before. It was a moderate-sized bedroom with a king sized bed in the middle. The room was decorated in Slytherin colours, green and silver.

Tonks looked curiously at the bed. A couple lay in it, intertwined in each other's arms. Tonks blushed as she recognised Harry and looked away.

"Daphne," he whispered gently.

"Once more, Harry," came her soft voice, "once more."

Tonks turned, unable to keep away. He was kissing her.

"Daphne..." he purred.

Daphne closed her eyes and smiled a tender, loving smile. Tonks felt a flare of jealousy leap inside of her. To have had something like that with anyone was something she could only dream about.

"Harry," she whispered.

"Yes, Daphne?"

"Will you trust me now? With your secret? You hinted you would let me know once you trusted me enough."

"Is that what this was all about? Getting me to reveal my secret?" His voice was even, but there was a challenge in it which anyone close to him would recognise.

"Never, Harry," replied Daphne, looking at him in the eye. "But I am worried about you. You spend all your time in the library, in abandoned classrooms. I worry about you. Its not normal, Harry. Please tell me your burden Harry. I wish to ease it."

He looked at her tenderly before kissing her again, softly, and with feeling. He sat up, the blanket falling off his upper body. Daphne did likewise, inadvertently exposing her torso as well.

"You cannot help me, Daphne," he said. "No body can."

"Its about Tonks, right?" asked Daphne, no accusation in her eyes.

He sighed. "You know I cannot lie to you, Daphne–"

She put a finger to her lips, shushing him instantly. "I have accepted long ago that however much I wish to be the first in your heart, she will always have precedence."

He smiled behind her finger. "What did I do to deserve one such as you?"

She smiled back at him. "That, Harry Potter, is precisely what I want you to tell me. Why did heaven send me to you? What is your goal, and more importantly, how can I help? Tell me everything."

And he told her. He told her how Mary had appeared to him on the field, how she'd told him what to do, how he gave part of his life-force to sustain her, how Tonks never remembered what had happened. He told her about his obsession with learning more to help Tonks. He told her about his wanting to learn more to defend Tonks from anyone who wished her harm.

And finally he told her his goal. "I wish to giveback to Tonks what Voldemort has taken from her. And I wish to kill him, he who almost destroyed her life. I will avenge her."

Daphne had said nothing during this entire monologue, she just held him. Finally she opened her mouth to speak.

"I will help you, Harry Potter," she replied. "I will help you in defeating Lord Voldemort, no matter what it takes. Tell me your plan."

As he began telling her, the memory began fading and Tonks had a feeling of being pulled up. When she opened her eyes, she was back in her body with the cut on her body healed. She looked around wildly. Nothing. She stared at where she knew Harry and Voldemort to be. She saw two bodies prone on the ground.

She couldn't bear it any more. "_Harry!" _she shrieked as she abandoned her hiding place and ran towards him. She was slipping and sliding on the blood on the ground, but she didn't care. Tears were falling down her eyes as she ran to him. She navigated obstacles with a nimbleness which would have surprised her, had her attention not been entirely on Harry.

"Harry!" she cried as she dropped to her knees on getting to him, his insides lying next to him in a pool of his own blood. She grasped his blood splattered face and gazed into his eyes, willing some life into them.

His mouth stretched into a weak smile. "Tonks... My angel..." he whispered in a broken voice.

Tears slid unrestrainedly down her cheeks as she looked at him. Her heart was bursting as she looked at him, from both love and sadness. He had dedicated her entire life to her, and before she got a chance to be with him, he was being snatched away from her.

She closed her eyes, the depth of her grief such that she knew not about the victory celebrations of the Order in the west of the city. She felt not the presence of Death as he reverentially carried Harry's soul to the heavens. She felt not the presence of our Lady, who was standing vigil, her head bowed.

She could only hear his voice again and again.

_My Angel._

His angel.

_My Angel._

"No Harry," she whispered, "You are my angel. My angel."

_My Angel._


End file.
